"A repeat offendor of an immersive and dramatic story"

The Nintendo DS has been a rebirthing ground of sorts for the Adventure genre of video games. Gracing the handheld in this light has been the Suda 51 production of Contact, the mediocre Trace Memory, the interactive novel of Hotel Dusk: Room 208. Perhaps the most widely beloved Adventure game series on the DS has been the Ace Attorney games, featuring a one Mr. Phoenix Wright.

Until now, Phoenix Wright has been the central character of the GBA-to-DS ports. This time, however, the Ace Attorney sheds off its mainstay, titular character for a newbie, Apollo Justice. Capcom has ended Phoenix's trilogy and but is committed to its courtroom drama simulation. Question is, does the fourth entry maintain the same quality of writing, humor, and cleverness that the series is known for, or is this game guilty of finally jumping the shark?

Of course, the main draw of the Ace Attorney games has been the plot. The story begins with Apollo Justice, a fresh defense attorney whose first case is defending a friend of his mentor, Kristoph Gavin. Apollo's introductory defendant just so happens to be Phoenix Wright himself, who has been accused of murder.

One big mystery that keeps the player engaged until the last case is the mystery of why Phoenix is no longer a practicing attorney. That, among other slowly-revealed mysteries in the over-arcing story, provide ample motivation to pay attention and move the cases along.

The cases themselves are interesting, packed with drama, hidden agendas, and evil perpetrators. The plot twists happen fairly frequently and the solutions to the mysteries will certainly make you seek out the most fantastical explanations you can dream up. The only fault here is that often it's more a case of proving how someone did it rather than figuring out who did it. It would have been more engaging had the real culprits not been revealed early half the time.

Not since the last case of the first Phoenix Wright game has the DS had much touch-screen innovation. Since Apollo Justice was specifically designed for the DS, 3D elements and hands on investigation is much more prevalent this time around. The finger-print dusting has returned once again, but now there is also the ability to collect footprints with plaster, rotate and examine evidence up close in three dimensions, and spray chemicals for blood and poison detection.

Since Phoenix is out, so is his unique ability to see and dismantle Psyche-locks, the bonds people hold over the deep secrets they harbor. Though they do make a brief reappearance in the last case, Apollo Justice focuses more on Apollo's own ability to sense when witnesses are lying in court through the use of his bracelet, a la Phoenix's magatama. When Apollo is convinced that a witness is lying, you'll be prompted to examine each part of the testimony and decide which statement must be false. You are then able to use his bracelet and examine the body language of your witness, searching for any nervous habits or twitches. This feature starts out easy, but the clues quickly become more and more obscure further into the game.

Another gameplay element that has been removed is the choice to choose between character profiles and evidence for answers to singular questions. If you are asked to provide an answer to something, you will be given only access to either the physical evidence or the character dossiers. This greatly reduces the amount of frustration induced from past iterations and helps strengthen your chances of providing the correct answer.

In the last case of the game, a new gameplay element is introduced called the Mason System. The Mason System is a new method of organizing the case by means of a computer system presenting the facts to a jury, a first-time for the series. Although it does work for the specific case, as it takes place over the course of several years, it is not particularly enjoyable and only presents the illusion of a jury. The problem is that the jury isn't actually something you impress or persuade as you are actually given the choice of declaring guilty or not guilty. It's meaningless choice and is equated to the game asking you if you'd like to win the game or receive a game over.

While it was unnecessary, the newest Ace Attorney game also features improved graphics. It isn't by much, but characters and environments are more detailed than they have in the past and the animations are also more fluid and life-like. The game also features an FMV that looks superb. Unfortunately, the FMV is the only one in the entire game. While it's delicious eye-candy, it leaves you wishing for much more scenes like it.

A tradition of the Ace Attorney games has been to bring in new blood for the musical composition for every new entry. Since the game has shifted focus, the music also reflects this. The tunes still incite and fuel a variety of emotions in new ways, yet keeping in with the themes from the previous games. Some of the tracks can really get your mind racing, if you're engaged in the heated courtroom battles.

Apollo Justice is a worthy, if a little shorter successor to the name of Phoenix Wright. Although the absence of some of the mainstay characters is a bit hard to swallow, the new cast does a good job of providing mystery, drama, and humor on the same caliber as before. It's still a bright future for the series, at least until Capcom pulls a Megaman on the series and we see Apollo Justice XYZ 9 on the Playstation 3.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/08

Game Release: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (US, 02/19/08)